Device identification method

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure teaches provision of a method and a portable electronic device. The method comprises receiving, via a wireless communication interface capable of supporting paired interaction, a data packet from an aerosol provision device via a wireless communication network. The data packet contains information relating to at least one physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device. An identity of the aerosol provision device is determined based at least in part on the at least one physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device and an aspect of a user interface is changed based on the determined identity of the aerosol provision device.

PRIORITY CLAIM

The present application is a Continuation of application Ser. No.15/733,325, filed on Jun. 26, 2020, which is from the National Phaseentry of PCT Application No. PCT/EP2018/086624, filed Dec. 21, 2018,which claims priority from GB Patent Application No. 1722278.7, filedDec. 29, 2017, each of which is hereby fully incorporated herein byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a method and a portable electronicdevice.

BACKGROUND

In conventional wireless communication approaches, such as Bluetooth andBluetooth Low Energy (also known as Bluetooth Smart Technology),individual devices can be operated as nodes taking the role of mastersor slaves in a particular communication relationship. Thus each nodeadopts the role of master or the role of slave. Accordingly, in acommunication pair, one node acts as master and the other acts as slave.In the context of Bluetooth Low Energy, the master may be referred to asthe central and the slave as the peripheral. One master (or central)node can be a master to several slaves (the exact number often limitedby a particular chipset implementation) and although a node can beregistered as a slave (or peripheral) to multiple masters, it can onlybe active as a slave to one master at any one time.

Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy are fundamentally different inoperation to other Low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs)such as Zigbee™ and Thread™, which are both based upon the IEEE 802.15.4wireless protocol.

Publications WO 2017/020188 and US 2014/0107815 described examples ofexchanging information between an aerosol provision device and anotherelectronic device.

SUMMARY

Some specific aspects and embodiments are set out in the appendedclaims.

Viewed from a first aspect, there can be provided a method comprising:receiving, via a wireless communication interface capable of supportingpaired interaction, a data packet from an aerosol provision device via awireless communication network, wherein the data packet containsinformation relating to at least one physical characteristic of theaerosol provision device; determining the identity of the aerosolprovision device based at least in part on the at least one physicalcharacteristic of the aerosol provision device; and changing an aspectof a user interface based on the determined identity of the aerosolprovision device.

Viewed from another aspect, there can be provided a portable electronicdevice comprising: at least one processor; a display; a wirelesscommunication interface capable of supporting paired interaction; memorycomprising instructions which, when executed by the at least oneprocessor cause the at least one processor to: receive, via theBluetooth low energy communication interface, a data packet from anaerosol provision device, wherein the data packet contains informationrelating to at least one physical characteristic of the aerosolprovision device; determine, based at least in part on the at physicalcharacteristic of the aerosol provision device, the identity of theaerosol provision device; and change an aspect of a user interfacedisplayed on the display to be changed based on the determined identityof the aerosol provision device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present teachings will now be described, by way ofexample only, with reference to accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an advertising protocol.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example devices environment.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates functional components of an aerosolprovision device.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a protocol stack.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates scan response timing.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates mode scheduling.

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates a mesh of nodes.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates a mesh of nodes.

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates an example BLE advertising packet.

FIG. 10 schematically illustrates a PDU of an example BLE advertisingpacket.

FIG. 11 schematically illustrates functional components of a portableelectronic device.

FIG. 12 schematically illustrates a user interface on a display of aportable electronic device.

FIG. 13 schematically illustrates a user interface on a display of aportable electronic device.

FIG. 14 schematically illustrates a user interface on a display of aportable electronic device.

FIG. 15 illustrates a method for a portable electronic device.

FIG. 16 illustrates a further method for a portable electronic device.

While the presently described approach is susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments are shown byway of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that drawings and detailed descriptionthereto are not intended to limit the scope to the particular formdisclosed, but on the contrary, the scope is to cover all modifications,equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope asdefined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure relates to a modified form of wirelesscommunication behavior. According to the present teachings, a device canbe configured to use a Bluetooth or Bluetooth-like communicationsprotocol and can, in a manner that may be transparent to other devicesusing the communications protocol for communication with the device,operate as both a master/central and a slave/peripheral in differentcommunication relationships at the same time on a time division basis.

In some examples, the devices can be aerosol provision devices such asso-called “E-cigarettes”, sometimes also known as Electronic NicotineDelivery devices (END devices), provided with electronics that allowthem to communicate with other communication devices. As used herein,the term “aerosol provision device” refers either to a device includingan aerosol source material (e.g., a device part and a disposablecartomizer part containing the aerosol source material) and/or a devicenot including an aerosol source material (e.g., just the device part ofthe previous example).

In the present examples, the devices use Bluetooth Low Energy (“BTLE”),but other Bluetooth protocols or Bluetooth-like protocols can takeadvantage of the present teachings. Bluetooth is a wireless technologystandard for short distance communication between appropriately enableddevices. BTLE is a variant on the original Bluetooth system, designed todraw less power in use for extended battery life and/or small batteryapplications. Both Bluetooth and BTLE operate in the UHF radioindustrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz andare designed for creating so-called wireless personal area networks(PANs) for interconnecting devices over short distances. BTLE uses amodified version of the Bluetooth stack for communication such that aBTLE device and a traditional Bluetooth device are not directlycompatible unless one device implements both protocols. Both Bluetoothand BTLE standards are maintained by the Bluetooth Special InterestGroup (SIG). The present disclosure is provided in the context of a BTLEimplementation using the part of the Bluetooth v4 specification thatrelates to BTLE. However, the skilled reader will appreciate that thepresent teachings can be applied to other Bluetooth approaches, such asthe so-called Classic Bluetooth definitions that are also set out in theBluetooth v4 specification. It will be further appreciated that thepresent teachings can be applied to technologies that are not inaccordance with an entire Bluetooth specification, but whichnevertheless behave in a Bluetooth-like manner.

For example, non-Bluetooth systems that nevertheless use an advertisingsetup based on the Bluetooth Low Energy Generic Access Profile (GAP) andthus have an advertising structure substantially as set out in FIG. 1would be able to deploy the techniques of the present teachings. FIG. 1illustrates an advertising structure according to which a peripheral (orslave or remote or secondary) device advertises its availability as aperipheral (or slave or remote or secondary) device during anadvertisement period, with the advertisement periods being separated byan advertisement interval. The advertisement may include data fortransmission, an indication that there is data for transmission or haveno data reference at all. To receive the advertisement, a central (orprimary or control) device scans for advertisements during a scanwindow. Multiple scan windows are separated by a scan interval. Therelative duration of the scan and advertisement intervals is altered,either by determining that the interval at one device type is constantwhile the other varies, or by determining that both vary, whichdetermination can be set by a standard or rule set for implementing theadvertising protocol. By providing this relative variation in the scanand advertisement intervals, it is provided that even where an initialadvertisement period does not overlap with an initial scan window, aftera number of advertisement and scan intervals, an advertisement periodwill occur which overlaps with a scan window such that a connection canbe initiated between the central and the peripheral device.

A first example of a devices environment 1 in which the presentteachings can be utilized is shown in FIG. 2 . In this example, a numberof aerosol provision devices 2 a through 2 e are present in the devicesenvironment 1. Various of the aerosol provision device 2 areinterconnected via wireless links illustrated by dotted lines 4.However, not every aerosol provision device 2 is directly interconnectedwith each other aerosol provision device. Rather, the aerosol provisiondevices 2 are interconnected in a mesh-like pattern with a scatter netdata flow. Thus, it can be seen that for a message to pass from aerosolprovision device 2 a to aerosol provision device 2 d, that message wouldbe passed via aerosol provision devices 2 b and 2 c (and optionally also2 e) in order to reach aerosol provision device 2 d. From someperspectives, it may be considered appropriate to describe theseinteractions as a PICONET as an alternative to using the description ofmeshing or meshed interaction. To provide for ease of readability thisdescription will use the term mesh throughout.

To achieve such a mesh-like communication structure, a device consistentwith the present teachings can take on more than one persona and thuscan belong to more than one BTLE communication relationship andfurthermore, the device can act as a central or a peripheral in one BTLEcommunication relationship and as a peripheral in another BTLEcommunication relationship. To manage the simultaneous nature of thesedifferent personas, the device of the present teachings can be operatedto switch between the two personas, such that at any one time the deviceadopts only one persona. The switching back and forth between personashappens often enough that each communication relationship is maintainedwithout the devices with which those communication relationships areformed concluding that the device has become unavailable and closingthose communication relationships.

Switching between the personas within a given device would take place ona timescale consistent with the demands a particular application for thedevice. There is some random element to the switching, as illustratedwith respect to FIG. 1 above. The time ranges within which the randomelement can operate would however be set in accordance with applicationdemands. For example, to provide for rapid data transmission through amesh of devices the persona switching would occur at relatively highfrequency. For example in an implementation based upon interactions bydevices associated with users in a transient location (such as where thedevices are END devices in a social situation) then each device may beconfigured to switch roles every few seconds. On the other hand, forgreater power efficiency and where data transmission speed through themesh is of lower concern a relatively lower persona switching frequencycan be used, perhaps dropping in a suitable context to switching rolesonly once or twice per hour. Also, the relative duration of peripheraland central roles can be altered according to the factors applicable tothe implementation environment. Thus while the peripheral persona isactive the device will send data as part of the advertising packet, andwhile the central persona is active the device will listen for devicesadvertising data packets.

Additionally, a device according to the present teachings can havemultiple central personas, which can be used to communicate in differentmeshes or to increase the total number of peripherals with which it canhold bond relationships at any one time above a limit imposed by theparticular Bluetooth chipset deployed. These multiple central personascan be implemented by using the persona switching approach outlinedabove, or by implementing multiple BTLE MCUs.

By using such a technique, for example, the interconnections between theaerosol provision devices 2 could occur in the form of aerosol provisiondevice 2 a acting as central and aerosol provision device 2 b acting asperipheral in a first BTLE relationship. Aerosol provision device 2 bmay also act a central in a second BTLE relationship that featuresaerosol provision device 2 c as a peripheral. Aerosol provision device 2c may in turn be the central in a third BTLE relationship that includesaerosol provision devices 2 d and 2 e as peripherals. Further, aerosolprovision device 2 d may be also be central in a fourth BTLErelationship that includes aerosol provision device 2 e as a peripheral.As will be appreciated, other orderings of which aerosol provisiondevices function as central and peripheral in various possible aerosolprovision device relationships can be implemented. For example, theconnectivity shown in FIG. 1 could alternatively be provided by havingaerosol provision device 2 b function as central in a BTLE relationshipin which aerosol provision devices 2 a and 2 c are peripherals, and byhaving aerosol provision device 2 d function as central in arelationship in which aerosol provision device 2 c is a peripheral, andby having aerosol provision device 2 e function as central in arelationship in which aerosol provision devices 2 c and 2 d areperipherals. As will be seen from the discussion below, the arrangementof relationships to make up the mesh may be determined on an ad-hocbasis depending upon which aerosol provision devices become centrals asa result of the relationship establishment process.

The mesh approach set out in the present disclosure allows the passingof small data packets or tokens between aerosol provision deviceswithout a need to establish full BTLE bond relationships between theaerosol provision devices. Thus such tokens may be flooded through amesh of any two or more aerosol provision devices based upon transientor impermanent aerosol provision device to aerosol provision devicerelationships where the peripheral to central relationship lasts justlong enough to transmit and receive the token. This approach does notprevent some or all of the aerosol provision devices in the meshestablishing bond relationships (also known as pairing). Such abond-based approach may be used for example in circumstances wherevolumes of data larger than can be accommodated using tokens need to betransmitted between aerosol provision devices in the mesh.

As also illustrated in FIG. 2 , an additional device 6 may be provided.The device 6 need have no knowledge or capability in respect of themeshable interconnectivity of the aerosol provision devices 2 andinstead implements the communication protocol in a conventional way. Forexample, the device 6 implements a conventional BTLE interface and isable therefore to establish a connection 6 with one of the meshableaerosol provision devices 2 such that the device 6 acts as central andthe aerosol provision device 2 acts as periphery. Alternatively, thedevice may utilize the same meshable interconnectivity in order tocommunicate with one or more of the aerosol provision devices 2.

Accordingly, it will be seen that the approach of the present teachingsallows a Bluetooth or BTLE-based mesh to be established without acontrolling device that provides a core node for a star-type topology.The mesh can interact with a non-meshed device, but this interaction canbe either continuous or intermittent and the non-meshed device need nothave any role in establishing, controlling or configuring the mesh.

Therefore, by establishing such a mesh network, the various aerosolprovision devices 2 can communicate with each other and pass informationon to other devices within range using an existing communicationprotocol such as BTLE. However, as will be appreciated from thediscussion, the device uses a modified form of the Bluetooth hardwareimplementation with Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) Notification toachieve this ad-hoc meshable behavior. As will be appreciated from thepresent teachings, this modification can be achieved by implementing amodified hardware, firmware or software implementation of the protocol,for example by using an implementation of a controller circuit thatcomplies in many respects with the standard communication protocol, butincludes additional functionality provided for example using a script toachieve the device-to-device interactions described herein. Theadditional functionality may be introduced using modified hardwarewhich, while this involves using non-standard hardware, does providethat the hardware could provide both modes on a full time basis withoutthe need for time-divided sharing of the personas. The controllercircuit may be a hardware circuit with functionality provided by itsconfiguration, such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)or may be a programmable microprocessor (μP) or microcontroller (MCU)operating under firmware and/or software control.

FIG. 3 illustrates schematically the functional components of eachaerosol provision device 2. Each aerosol provision device 2 has anantenna 10 for transmitting and receiving BTLE signals. The antenna 10is connected to a wireless communication interface 12, for example aBTLE control circuit 12 such as a BTLE MCU. The wireless communicationinterface 12 receives data for transmission from and provides receiveddata to a device core functionality processor 14 which operates, forexample in conjunction with memory 16 and/or I/O elements 18 to carryout the core computing functionality of the aerosol provision device 2.Although it has been shown in FIG. 3 that the functional components ofthe aerosol provision device 2 interact on an direct link basis, it willbe understood that as FIG. 3 is schematic in nature, this descriptionalso includes alternative arrangements of the functional components, forexample on a bus interconnect basis. It will also be appreciated thatone or more of the functional components illustrated may be provided bya single physical component, and also that one functional component maybe provided by multiple physical components.

With regard to the functional components relating to the core computingfunctionality of the aerosol provision device 2, it will be appreciatedthat the nature and usage of these components may differ depending uponthe nature of the device itself. In the example of the aerosol provisiondevice 2, the core computing functionality may include passing orinformation tokens between aerosol provision device devices, monitoringand reporting of device charge and/or nicotine fluid levels, lost andfound interactions, and usage recording. Thus it will also beappreciated that the core computing functionality may differ from auser-perceived core functionality of the device. For example, in thecase of an aerosol provision device, the user-perceived corefunctionality will likely be that of aerosol generation for nicotinedelivery, with the computing functionalities being additional,supplementary or secondary to that user-perceived core functionality.

FIG. 4 then illustrates schematically a protocol structure asimplemented by the wireless communication interface 12 of each aerosolprovision device 2. The protocol structure illustrated in FIG. 4corresponds to the Bluetooth stack, which includes the GATT (genericattribute protocol), GAP (generic access protocol), SM (service managerprotocol), GATT/ATT (low energy attribute protocol), L2CAP (logical linkcontrol and adaptation layer), and link layer. In the present examplesthe link layer operates on a LERF (low energy radio frequency) basis. Asillustrated in FIG. 4 , the protocol stack can be conceptually dividedbetween the so-called Host and Controller layers. The controller part ismade up of the lower layers that are required for physical layer packetsand associated timing. The controller part of the stack may beimplemented in the form of an integrated circuit such as a SoC(system-on-a-chip) package with an integrated Bluetooth radio.

The layer implementations relevant to understanding the presentteachings include the link layer, the L2CAP, the GAP and the low energyattribute protocol.

The link layer controller is responsible for low level communicationover a physical interface. It manages the sequence and timing oftransmitted and received frames, and using link layer protocol,communicates with other devices regarding connection parameters and dataflow control. It also handles frames received and transmitted while thedevice is in advertising or scanner modes. The link layer controlleralso provides gate keeping functionality to limit exposure and dataexchange with other devices. If filtering is configured, the link layercontroller maintains a “white list” of allowed devices and will ignoreall requests for data exchange or advertising information from others.As well as providing security functionality, this can also help managepower consumption. The link layer controller uses a host controllerinterface (HCI) to communicate with upper layers of the stack if thelayer implementations are not co-located.

The logical link control and adaptation layer protocol (L2CAP) componentprovides data services to upper layer protocols like security managerprotocol and attribute protocol. It is responsible for protocolmultiplexing and data segmentation into small enough packets for thelink layer controller, and de-multiplexing and reassembly operation onthe other end. The L2CAP's has a backend interface is for the GAP thatdefines the generic procedures related to the discovery of BTLE devicesand link management aspects of connecting to other BTLE devices. The GAPprovides an interface for the application to configure and enablesdifferent modes of operation, e.g. advertising or scanning, and also toinitiate, establish, and manage connection with other devices. The GAPis therefore used control connections and advertising in Bluetooth. GAPcontrols device visibility and determines how two devices can (orcannot) interact with each other.

The low energy attribute protocol (ATT) is optimized for small packetsizes used in Bluetooth low energy and allows an attribute server toexpose a set of attributes and their associated values to an attributeclient. These attributes can be discovered, read, and written by peerdevices. The GATT provides a framework for using ATT.

As will be apparent from the discussions above, the present teachingsuse the advertising process to facilitate the meshed interaction ofmultiple devices, for example to permit scattering information betweenan unlimited number of devices for the purpose of disseminating dataover distances and time.

In the context of the present examples, an application running on adevice communicating via the meshed structure described herein mayrequest or watch for specific scan response payloads, responsive to ascan response being sent by that device. This approach is used inconventional Bluetooth implementations to transmit the device name andother identification details. However in the present approaches, thisscan response, which is defined as a 31 byte data packet, also referredto as a token, is used to share ID information related to a variablethat when read by an application will trigger a particular response oraction. The timing of such requests is illustrated in FIG. 5 . As can beseen from this Figure, the scan response request is transmitted by thecentral device during the advertising interval and the scan responsedata is provided by the peripheral before the start of the nextadvertising interval.

By implementing the approach of the present teachings, data passing overthe physical layer is indistinguishable at that level from ordinary BTLEtraffic. Also, although higher-level layers are modified to accept thepresent meshable-interaction of devices, a non-meshable enabledapplication can communicate over BTLE using a device consistent with thepresent teachings.

Also, a device that utilizes only a conventional BTLE stack (such asdevice 6 illustrated in FIG. 2 above) can communicate with an aerosolprovision device 2 that uses the meshable approach of the presentteachings. The conventional BTLE device can then receive data from themeshable aerosol provision device 2 without the BTLE stack in theconventional BTLE device having any knowledge of the meshed interactionsof the aerosol provision devices 2. The data that the conventional BTLEdevice receives may have originated at the directly connected aerosolprovision device 2, or may have originated at aerosol provision devicethat previously connected to the directly connected aerosol provisiondevice 2 via the mesh and which data has been stored or cached at themeshable aerosol provision device 2. The origin of such mesh-transferreddata could be another meshed aerosol provision device 2, or could beanother conventional BTLE device that is or has been connected to ameshed aerosol provision device.

FIG. 6 illustrates schematically the behavior of each aerosol provisiondevice 2 in relation to managing the dual persona nature of each aerosolprovision device 2 to establish connections as both central andperipheral. As BTLE provides for two operating modes at the presentationlayer, one corresponding to each of central and periphery roles, theaerosol provision device 2 of the present examples alternates betweenthese two modes so as to provide for both advertiser broadcasting toadvertise its capability as a peripheral and for observer activity tolook for other peripheral-capable aerosol provision devices to which itcan connect as central. While acting as observer, the aerosol provisiondevice can act upon any received broadcaster advertisement to establisha connection as central in accordance with the usual BTLE conduct, forexample as set out in the BTLE Generic Access Profile (GAP). Whileperforming advertiser broadcasting, it will be able to establish aconnection as peripheral with an observing aerosol provision device thatresponds to become a central. As is discussed above, this time-sharingbetween the personas of central and peripheral carries on after theconnections between the devices have been established. This providesthat the single device can operate in both modes on an ongoing, albeittime multiplexed, basis based upon a single BTLE MCU in the device.

Thus an aerosol provision device configured to provide themeshable-interaction of the present example uses the standard BTLE GATT(Generic Attribute Profile) specification in combination with a modifiedGAP to adopt the two operation modes associated with the dual-personanature of the aerosol provision device. As will be discussed below, theaerosol provision device alternates between advertising as a peripheraland listening as a central so as to facilitate being able to connect toother aerosol provision devices in both central and peripheral modes.Typically the device already has an indication of the identity of themesh in that the devices can be pre-programmed to use a particular UUIDtied to the particular device mesh (“service” in BTLE terms) that thedevices are intended to participate in. For example all END devices froma particular brand, range, or manufacturer may be programmed to use thesame UUID. Within this context, to identify the active persona or mode,the aerosol provision device uses an ID code that uniquely identifiesthe aerosol provision device within the mesh. The ID and UUID (in effectmesh ID or group ID) codes are held in the firmware of the device andinserted into the advertising packets along with the data that makes upthe token and may also be referenced in scan response requests and scanresponse messages as part of the advertising under GAP interactions withand between the devices.

While operating as a central, the aerosol provision device can adopt thestates Scanner, Initiator and Master, and while operating as aperipheral the aerosol provision device can adopt the states Advertiserand Slave.

FIG. 6 also illustrates the relative advertising and observing times ofmultiple aerosol provision devices. The illustrated approach tends toavoid (but not necessarily exclude) multiple aerosol provision devicesin range of one another performing broadcast simultaneously. In thepresent example, the duration of the observing period is controlled tofall in the range of 0.01 ms and 5 s, and the advertising period is of afixed duration which may be in the range of 0.5 s to 10 s. In otherexamples, the advertising duration may also be variable and theobserving duration may fall within a different range, overlapping rangeor subset of the example range given above. Such time offsetting can beachieved in a number of ways such as by coordination between the aerosolprovision devices, or by each aerosol provision device using an intervallength adjustment such as to provide uneven time spacing between eachmode transition. Such interval length adjustments could be provided byselecting for each interval one of a number of possible interval lengthsor by using some form of interval duration randomizer.

When an aerosol provision device is observing with a view toestablishing a role as a central in a mesh, the aerosol provision deviceacts no differently to an aerosol provision device with no meshingcapability when listening for advertisement from a potential peripheralaerosol provision device. Thus an aerosol provision device operating inthis mode can also become a central to a conventional BTLE devicewithout the meshing capability of the present teachings.

When an aerosol provision device is advertising with a view toestablishing a role as a peripheral in a mesh, it advertises using astructure based upon the BTLE GAP data. However the BTLE GAP structureis modified to include mesh-specific information that can be recognizedby a mesh-capable device which receives the advertisement. Themesh-specific information can include fields such as:

-   -   the ID of the advertising aerosol provision device;    -   packet sequence number of a packet awaiting transmission from        that aerosol provision device, this is used to avoid        duplicates—depending on the application, this may simply be a        packet sequence of packets originated from that aerosol        provision device (for example where the application requires        only that the payload or token from the advertising aerosol        provision device is flooded to multiple other aerosol provision        devices) but could be made unique for a given mesh (group ID),        time window and/or other uniqueness scope according to the        application requirements;    -   source aerosol provision device identifier of the packet having        that packet sequence number, to reflect that the token now being        passed may have originated at a different aerosol provision        device to the one that is now passing it on;    -   destination aerosol provision device identifier for the packet        having that packet sequence number, depending on the        implementation this can be an single aerosol provision device        (corresponding to some form of routed operation) or ‘all’        aerosol provision devices (corresponding to flooding type        operation);    -   the group ID of the source aerosol provision device for the        packet having that sequence number, which is used to allow        multiple mesh networks to co-exist in the same physical space        (as explained above, this group ID typically uses the BTLE UUID,        although another group ID filed could be defined and used if        required);    -   life time or expiry time of the packet having that sequence        number;    -   payload, the data specific to a particular application—for        example data relating to an END device application.

In accordance with the BTLE data handling approach, if a givenapplication payload item is too large for a single packet, that payloaditem is broken down and distributed within multiple packets beforereassembly at the/each destination aerosol provision device. In suchapplications a bond may be established between aerosol provision devicesso as to provide for more transmission management for this larger datavolume.

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates connectivity patterns between a numberof aerosol provision devices N1, N2, N3 and N4. In this illustration,aerosol provision device N1 is out of range for direct communicationwith aerosol provision device N4. Different operation modes of theaerosol provision devices are signified by the elements control chip(CC) 22 and mesh chip (MC) 24 of each of aerosol provision devices N1 toN4. The control chip is representative of the aerosol provision deviceMCU operating to communicate with a conventional BTLE device such as thedevice 6 shown in FIG. 2 . The mesh chip is representative of theaerosol provision device MCU operating in both central and peripheralmodes to communicate through the mesh.

In the example of FIG. 7 , aerosol provision device N1 has a bit set inan advertisement data field indicating that it has data to send. Theschedule of advertising and observing in each aerosol provision devicecauses aerosol provision device N2 to be the first aerosol provisiondevice in direct communication range with N1 to listen as a centralfollowing aerosol provision device N1 having the advertisement datafield set. Thus aerosol provision device N2 when in central modereceives the advertising data which N1 is advertising while inperipheral mode. This advertising data, as received by N2 can be used byN2 in connection with an application running at or otherwise associatedwith N2. In addition or alternatively, aerosol provision device N2 cancache the advertising data ready for onward transmission as advertisingdata on a future occasion that aerosol provision device N2 adopts itsperipheral persona. Thereby, the advertising data that originated at N1can pass onward from N2 as advertising data that it then received byaerosol provision device N3 at a time when N2 is advertising asperipheral and N3 is listening as central. The advertising data thatoriginated with N1 can then be used and/or passed on by N3, ultimatelyarriving at N4 by the same method.

It should be noted that in this implementation, the advertising data iseffectively flooded across the mesh. Thus, if N1 happens to be listeningas central at the same time that N2 is advertising as peripheral, theadvertising data will return to N1 as well as passing onward through themesh to N3. In this circumstance either the aerosol provision device N1or some application running at or associated with N1 may simply discardthe returning advertising data. In some implementations, the aerosolprovision device or application may make use of the returned advertisingdata in some way, for example using the time between transmission andreceipt as some form of random interval generator or for meshdiagnostics.

As has been explained above, it is possible for the transmission overthe mesh to be in the more structured format of using established bondsbetween the aerosol provision devices. In such a circumstance, each pairof aerosol provision devices will interact over an established bond andthe persona switching at each aerosol provision device will provide fordata received in a bond of which one persona is a member can then beonwardly transmitted using a bond of which the other persona is amember.

Control as to whether the data is transmitted to every aerosol provisiondevice (flooding) or whether the data is transmitted only to selectedaerosol provision devices (routing) can be achieved in several ways. Ifthe data is to be automatically communicated to all aerosol provisiondevices without restriction, then this can be a default state configuredinto the aerosol provision devices. If the data is to be transmittedonly to aerosol provision devices currently active in the mesh, thenthis can be achieved either as default behavior set in the aerosolprovision devices or on an application-specific basis where theapplication is mesh-aware and provides control information to thecommunication stack to indicate the data transmission extent. If thedata is only to be transmitted to specific aerosol provision devices,this can be achieved on an application-specific basis where theapplication is mesh-aware and provides control information to thecommunication stack to indicate the data transmission extent. Thepresent examples are configured to operate on the basis of a floodingapproach such that data is automatically forwarded to allpresently-meshed devices.

FIG. 8 provides a further illustration of meshing behavior as betweenaerosol provision devices. In this example, a larger number of aerosolprovision devices N11 to N19 are present. The illustration in FIG. 8represents a given snapshot in time such that different ones of theaerosol provision devices are illustrated as having currently adopteddifferent ones of their respective peripheral and central personas. Atthe time illustrated in FIG. 8 three aerosol provision devices havebecome configured into central mode, these being aerosol provisiondevices N12, N16 and N19, with the remaining aerosol provision deviceshaving become configured into peripheral mode. As will be appreciatedfrom the discussion above, for any given instance of the same aerosolprovision devices being present in the same locations, the exact numberand identify of the aerosol provision devices that become configuredinto the central mode will depend upon factors such as the scheduling byeach aerosol provision device of its advertising/observing periods andthe relative location of each aerosol provision device compared to anyother aerosol provision device that has already become configured intoeither central or peripheral mode. The passing of a data token isillustrated in the figure by the presence of a flag passing from N11sending this data token in its advertising data to N12 which willreceive that advertising data listening in central mode. This token willlater be included in advertising data from N12 when N12 adopts itsperipheral persona. Thereby the token can be passed onward through themesh and ultimately arrive at each aerosol provision device in the meshat least once.

As will be understood from the discussion above, the meshes can changedynamically based upon changes to the numbers and positions of aerosolprovision devices in the mesh. For example as aerosol provision devicesmove away from the remainder of the mesh, eventually they will losecontact with all aerosol provision devices in the mesh and leave themesh. Likewise, an aerosol provision device that is deactivated orenters a power saving non-wireless mode will lose contact with the otheraerosol provision devices in the mesh and leave the mesh. Further, newaerosol provision devices not previously a part of the mesh will be ableto join the mesh as and when they come within range of an aerosolprovision device in the mesh or when they are powered while within rangeof an aerosol provision device in the mesh. Also, as will be understoodfrom the discussion of persona switching above, an aerosol provisiondevice already within the mesh and operating as a peripheral within themesh will also operate at a different time as a central within the mesh.In an implementation in which the mesh adopts bond relationships suchthat particular aerosol provision devices have defined roles as centralsin some bonds and peripherals in others, if an aerosol provision devicethen changes location relative to the aerosol provision devices in themesh it may in effect leave the mesh as all established bonds may ceaseto operate of the range to the new location. Such an aerosol provisiondevice would then resume attempting both observing and advertising untilit establishes one or more new bond relationships into other aerosolprovision devices of the bond-linked mesh.

As the skilled reader will appreciate, Bluetooth and BTLE provide forsecuring of an inter-node communication bond. This is not applicable tothe purely advertising-based transmission of tokens in the form ofadvertising data unless such transmission of tokens leads to theestablishment of bond relationships. In the present examples, even wherebond relationships are used, the aerosol provision devices can beconfigured to establish such bonds without requiring user input toconfirm trust between the different aerosol provision devices or otherdevices. Rather, in the present examples, aerosol provision devices of aparticular type can be configured to pre-trust all other aerosolprovision devices of that particular type. For example, each aerosolprovision device can be configured to trust all other devices thatidentify as being aerosol provision devices from a given manufacturer,group of manufacturers, brand, group of brands, model, group of modelsor as being compliant with a given aerosol provision device standard orgroup of standards.

Such a trust pattern can be supplemented with inherent controls on theamount of personal data that the device stores/is permitted to transmit.For example, an aerosol provision device may be configured by the owninguser to not hold or to be prevented from sharing any information thatidentifies the owner. This would not preclude the END device frominteracting with other END devices to pass on information that can beused for lost/found functionality or from passing on information aboutthe END device itself to provide for group interactions between ENDdevices of the same brand or model, for example as discussed below.

In other examples, trust may be a user-explicit functionality, such thata user may be required to actively accept or request a communicationbond to be established with another aerosol provision device.

Where a particular aerosol provision device or other device is beingconfigured by the user, for example to communicate with a conventionalBTLE device of the user such as a smartphone, phablet or tablet device,the trust relationship between the user's meshable device andconventional BTLE device may be secured in the same manner as otherconventional BTLE pairings to establish a communication bond.

Thus it will be understood that by using the approach of the presentteachings, a device can be provided that is capable of meshedinteraction with other similar devices by adopting a dual-personastructure in which the device is able to operate on a time-divisionbasis as both a master (central) and slave (peripheral) forcommunication with those other like devices while also operating as aslave/peripheral to a conventional device without the dual personacapability.

This approach can be used to facilitate device-to-device interactionsbetween a range of devices for a range of purposes. As discussed above,examples of devices that can be equipped for such device-to-deviceinteractions using the meshed or PICONET topology approach of the aboveexamples include electronic nicotine delivery devices (END devices).

The meshable interconnectivity of the aerosol provision devices 2A andone or more other devices as described above may be considered aconnectionless-state interaction, wherein connectionless-state packetsare created, transmitted and received by each device in accordance withthe examples described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8 .

In the present example, the wireless communication interface 12 of anaerosol provision device 2 a is used to create a connectionless-stateadvertising packet that contains information relating to at least onephysical characteristic of the aerosol provision device 2 a. The atleast one physical characteristic may include the color of the aerosolprovision device 2 a. The at least one physical characteristic may alsoinclude other physical characteristics such as the shape of the aerosolprovision device 2 a, the size of the aerosol provision device 2 a andthe type of the aerosol provision device 2 a. For example, the at leastone physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device 2 a mayinclude the length, width and thickness of the aerosol provision device2 a, and/or an indication that the aerosol provision device 2 a issubstantially cylindrical in shape, pebble shaped, oval shaped oranother geometric shape.

The color of the aerosol provision device 2 a may be conveyed as a hexcolor code, which could be either a hex code approximating to the actualcolor of the device or a code illustrating very generally the colorproperty. For example, if the aerosol provision device 2 a was a reddevice, as a general approximation of “red” this could be represented bythe hex color code FF0000, while a specific hex code for the actualcolor could correspond to a pantone or other color identifier of thedevice (as one example a device colored in Pantone 2347 U, would berepresented by the hex code E74536 or for simplicity of representationof the color on a display device could be approximated to the so-calledwebsafe color FF3333). In the example of a yellow device, the generalapproximation of “yellow” could be represented by the hex color codeFFFF00, while a specific hex code for an actual color might correspondfor example to Pantone 114 C would be represented by the hex code FBDD40(or for simply display of the color on a display device could beapproximated to the so-called websafe color FFCC33). Conveying the colorof the aerosol provision device 2 a as a hex color code allows any ofthe colors in the RGB color model to be conveyed in the advertisingpacket using 3 bytes. Alternatively, the color of the aerosol provisiondevice 2 a could be conveyed using a predetermined code. For example, ifa particular type of aerosol provision device 2 a were only manufacturedin a finite number of different colors, such as eight, a code would beused to convey the color of the device, such as 001 for red, 010 foryellow, 011 for blue, etc., through the available color extent. In thisway, only three bits in a single byte of the advertising packet isrequired to convey the color of the aerosol provision device 2 a,thereby saving space in the advertising packet.

In the present example, the advertising packet generated by the wirelesscommunication interface 12 of an aerosol provision device 2 a optionallyincludes additional information about the aerosol provision device 2 a,such as the batch number (batch ID) of the aerosol provision device 2 a,the serial number of the aerosol provision device 2 a and/or the productidentification number (product ID) of the aerosol provision device 2 a.For example, the advertising packet may include a UUID corresponding tothe aerosol provision device 2 a.

The wireless communication interface 12 of an aerosol provision device 2a may be a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) communication interface. FIG. 9illustrates schematically an example BLE advertising packet 100, whichis up to 47 bytes in size. Such an advertising packet is generated bythe BLE communication interface 12 of the aerosol provision device 2 a.

The advertising packet 100 illustrated in FIG. 9 begins with a 1 bytepreamble 110 and a 4 byte access address 120, the access address 120corresponding with the RF channel number used by to transmit theadvertising packet 100. The preamble 110 and access address 120 portionsare followed by the Packet Data Unit (PDU) 130, which can between 2 and39 bytes in size depending on the advertising type used. The advertisingpacket 100 then finishes with a 3 byte Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)140. The content and format of the preamble 110, access address 120 andCRC 130 portions may be standardized across each advertising packet 100,but the length and content of the PDU 130 may be different for eachadvertising packet 100. The length of the PDU 130 is typically kept tothe minimum required to convey the required information in order toreduce the transmission time of the advertising packet 100.

FIG. 10 illustrates schematically the PDU 130 of an example BLEadvertising packet 100, for example the BLE advertising packet 100illustrated in FIG. 9 . In this example, the first 16 bytes of the PDU130 contain a 128 bit UUID 132 of the aerosol provision device 2 a. Thenext 2 bytes of the PDU 130 contain the product ID 134 of the aerosolprovision device 2 a. The next 3 bytes contain the hex color code 136corresponding to the color of the aerosol provision device 2 a. Theremaining bytes 138 are unallocated, but may be used to conveyadditional information, such as the shape of the aerosol provisiondevice 2 a, the size of the aerosol provision device 2 a and/or the typeof the aerosol provision device 2 a. The batch ID of the aerosolprovision device 2 a may be included instead of the product ID 134, orthe batch ID may be included in the unallocated portion 138 of the PDU130. Alternatively, the allocation of space for the color informationmay be a single byte for example where the color of the aerosolprovision device 2 a is conveyed using a predetermined code.

The wireless communication interface 12 of the aerosol provision device2 a is then used to transmit the generated advertising packet via awireless communication network. For example, if the wirelesscommunication interface 12 is a BLE communication interface, theadvertising packet 100 may be in the format illustrated in FIGS. 9 and10 . The advertising packet 100 is then received by a device 6 listeningfor an advertising packet in a mesh network as described above.

FIG. 11 illustrates schematically the functional components of aportable electronic device 6. The portable electronic device 6 may be amobile communications device, such as a mobile phone or smartphone or aportable computing device such as a laptop, smartwatch, tablet orphablet device. Each portable electronic device 6 has an antenna 60 fortransmitting and receiving wireless communication signals, such as BLEsignals. The antenna 60 is connected to a wireless communicationinterface 62 capable of supporting paired interaction, for example a BLEcontrol circuit 62 such as a BLE MCU. Within the context of BLE, apaired interaction is understood to mean both pairing and bonding. Thewireless communication interface 62 receives data for transmission fromand provides received data to a device core functionality processor 64which operates, for example in conjunction with memory 66, I/O elements68 and/or the display 65 to carry out the core computing functionalityof the portable electronic device 6. The display 65 is configured todisplay a user interface, such as a graphical user interface (GUI), tothe user of the portable electronic device 6. The display 65 may be atouchscreen display, allowing the user to interact with user interfacedisplayed on the display 65 by touching the display 65 with theirfinger, stylus or other suitable object. Alternatively, the display 65may be a conventional display screen, with the user interface includingone or more buttons, switches or other input elements 68 located on,attached to or in communication with the portable electronic device 6for user interaction. For example, the user may be able to interact withthe user interface using a button located on the portable electronicdevice, a wired pointing device such as a mouse or a wireless devicesuch as a wireless keyboard, wireless remote control or a smartwatch, orby speech or gesture recognition. Although it has been shown in FIG. 6that the functional components of the portable electronic device 6interact on an direct link basis, it will be understood that as FIG. 6is schematic in nature, this description also includes alternativearrangements of the functional components, for example on a businterconnect basis. It will also be appreciated that one or more of thefunctional components illustrated may be provided by a single physicalcomponent, and also that one functional component may be provided bymultiple physical components.

In the present example, the portable electronic device 6 receives a datapacket via the wireless communication interface 62 from an aerosolprovision device 2 a via a wireless communication network. The datapacket may contain information relating to at least one physicalcharacteristic of the aerosol provision device 2 a, for example anadvertising packet 100 as described above in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10.

In response to receiving a data packet from an aerosol provision device2 a, the processor 64 of the portable electronic device 6 is configuredto determine the identity of the aerosol provision device 2 a based atleast in part on the at least one physical characteristic of the aerosolprovision device 2 a. For example, the processor 64 of the portableelectronic device 6 may read the data packet to extract the color of theaerosol provision device 2 a. In the example where the data packet is anadvertising packet 100 as described above in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10, the processor 64 is configured to read the PDU 130 of the advertisingpacket 100 in order to extract the information relating to the at leastone physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device 2 a, such asthe color conveyed in as a hex color code 136, the UUID 132 and theproduct ID 134 of the aerosol provision device 2 a.

The memory 66 of the portable electronic device 6 may contain a databaseof physical characteristics of known aerosol provision devices. As partof the determination of the identity of the aerosol provision device 2a, the processor 64 of the portable electronic device 6 may compare theinformation relating to at least one physical characteristic of theelectronic nicotine delivery device 2 a, and contained in the receiveddata packet, to information contained in the database stored in thememory 66 of the portable electronic device 6. For example, if the atleast one physical characteristic in the data packet includes the shapeand/or size of the aerosol provision device 2 a, this information may becross-referenced against information in the database in order todetermine the type of aerosol provision device the data packet was sentfrom. Alternatively, or in addition, if the color of the aerosolprovision device 2 a is conveyed in the data packet using apredetermined code, the processor 64 may use the information in thedatabase to translate the code sent in the data packet into a color ofthe aerosol provision device 2 a.

In the present example, the processor 64 of the portable electronicdevice 6 is configured to change an aspect of a user interface based onthe determined identity of the aerosol provision device 2 a. This allowsthe user to easily identify the aerosol provision device whencommunicating with it for the first time using the portable electronicdevice. For example, the processor 64 may be configured to present apictorial or graphical representation which indicates the aerosolprovision device 2 a on the user interface, where the graphicalrepresentation is based on the determined identity of the aerosolprovision device 2 a. FIGS. 12 and 13 schematically illustrates a userinterface on a display 65 of a portable electronic device 6corresponding to a change in an aspect of the user interface performedby the processor 64 of the portable electronic device 6. In the examplesillustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13 , a graphical representation 67 whichindicates the aerosol provision device 2 a is provided on a portion 65 aof the display 65.

Alternatively or in addition, the processor 64 may change another aspectof the user interface, such as playing an animation or video, playing asound, changing the display settings of the user interface, such as thebrightness, contrast or resolution of the user interface, or changingone or more colors displayed on the user interface. Changing an aspectof the user interface based on the determined identity of the aerosolprovision device informs the user as to the identity of the aerosolprovision device 2 a from which data has been received. This allows theuser to determine what action to take, for example to requestcommencement of a pairing process between the portable electronic device6 and the aerosol provision device 2 a, or to block the aerosolprovision device 2 a from further communication with the portableelectronic device 6.

The identity of the aerosol provision device 2 a may be determined basedon the color of the aerosol provision device 2 a and the processor 64 isconfigured to change the color of at least a portion of user interfaceto match the color of the aerosol provision device 2 a. For example, ifthe color of the aerosol provision device 2 a is conveyed as a hex colorcode, the processor 64 is configured to change the color of at least aportion of user interface to the RGB color corresponding to the hexcolor code. Alternatively, the processor 64 may be configured to presentthe physical characteristic used to identify the aerosol provisiondevice 2 a on the user interface, such as in text form. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 12 , the graphical representation 67 is shaded torepresent the color of the aerosol provision device 2 a, whilst in theexample illustrated in FIG. 13 the graphical representation 67 is notcolored to match the color of the aerosol provision device 2 a.

The identity of the aerosol provision device 2 a may also be determinedbased on one or more of the UUID, the product ID and the batch ID of theaerosol provision device 2 a, and the processor 64 is configured todisplay this information on the user interface, for example as text orin one or more images. If the identity of the aerosol provision device 2a is also determined based on the color of the aerosol provision device2 a, the processor 64 may be configured to change the color of at leasta portion of user interface to match the color of the aerosol provisiondevice 2 a and to display the additional information, such as the UUID,the product ID and/or the batch ID, in text form in or near the portionof the user interface where the color has been changed. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 12 , the portion 65 a of the display 65 alsocontains text 69 next to the graphical representation 67, the text 69containing the product ID and the UUID of the aerosol provision device 2a. In the example illustrated in FIG. 13 , instead of the graphicalrepresentation 67 being shaped to represent the color of the aerosolprovision device 2 a, the portion 65 a of the display 65 also containstext 69 next to the graphical representation 67, the text 69 containingthe color of the aerosol provision device 2 a and the size of theaerosol provision device 2 a

The identity of the aerosol provision device 2 a may also be determinedbased on one or more of the shape, the size and the type of aerosolprovision device 2 a. In such an example, in addition or alternativelyto displaying this information in text form on the user interface, theprocessor 64 may be configured to display a pictorial representation ofthe aerosol provision device 2 a, where the shape and size of thepictorial representation are based on the shape, the size and the typeof aerosol provision device 2 a used to determine the identity of theaerosol provision device. For example, if the data packet received fromthe aerosol provision device 2 a indicates that the aerosol provisiondevice 2 a is substantially cylindrical in shape, the processor 64 isconfigured to display a cylinder on a portion of the user interface, forexample as a plan view in 2D or an orthographic or isometric projection.In the example illustrated in FIG. 12 , the graphical representation 67is cylindrically shaped to match the shape of the aerosol provisiondevice 2 a. If the data packet received from the aerosol provisiondevice 2 a indicates the size of the aerosol provision device 2 a, theprocessor 64 is configured to display a graphical representation whichindicates the aerosol provision device 2 a where the dimensions of thegraphical representation are scaled relative to the size of the aerosolprovision device 2 a received in the data packet. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 13 the graphical representation 67 is pebble or ovalshaped to match the shape of the aerosol provision device 2 a and thegraphical representation 67 is also scaled to match the size of theaerosol provision device 2 a

The memory 66 of the portable electronic device 6 optionally contains adatabase of physical characteristics of known aerosol provision devices.Each entry in the database may include a picture or graphicalrepresentation which indicates the corresponding aerosol provisiondevice. Accordingly, when the identity of the aerosol provision devicefrom which the data packet was received is determined based on acomparison with entries in the database stored in the memory 66 of theportable electronic device 6, the processor 64 may be configured tochange an aspect of the user interface by displaying the picture orgraphical representation which indicates the entry in the databasecorresponding to the identity of the aerosol provision device 2 a in aportion of the user interface.

Any combination of the change of an aspect of the user interfacedescribed above may be combined. For example, the processor 64 may beconfigured to display a graphical representation which indicates theaerosol provision device 2 a on at least a portion of the userinterface, where the shape and size of the graphical representation isbased on shape and size information in the received data packet, thecolor of the graphical representation is based on the color informationin the received data packet and any additional information in thereceived data packet, such as the UUID, product ID and batch ID of theaerosol provision device is displayed in text form next to the graphicalrepresentation or as part of the graphical representation, for exampleas text on the body of the aerosol provision device in the graphicalrepresentation.

The portable electronic device 6 optionally receives a data packet viathe wireless communication interface 62 from a second aerosol provisiondevice 2 b via a wireless communication network. The data packet maycontain information relating to at least one physical characteristic ofthe second aerosol provision device 2 b, for example an advertisingpacket 100 as described above in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10 . The atleast one physical characteristic of the second aerosol provision device2 b contained in the data packet may be the same set of characteristicsas in the data packet received from the first aerosol provision device 2a, a different set of characteristics or an overlapping set ofcharacteristics. For example the data packet received from the firstaerosol provision device 2 a may contain information relating to thecolor of the first aerosol provision device 2 a, the UUID and theproduct ID of the first aerosol provision device 2 a whilst the datapacket received from the second aerosol provision device 2 b may containinformation relating to the color of the second aerosol provision device2 b, the size of the second aerosol provision device 2 b and the shapeof the second aerosol provision device 2 b.

In response to receiving a data packet from the second aerosol provisiondevice 2 b, the processor 64 of the portable electronic device 6 isconfigured to determine the identity of the second aerosol provisiondevice 2 b based at least in part on the at least one physicalcharacteristic of the aerosol provision device 2 b, as described abovewith respect to the identity of the first aerosol provision device 2 a.

The processor 64 is then configured to change an aspect of the userinterface based on the determined identity of the first aerosolprovision device 2 a and the second aerosol provision device 2 b such asto enable a selection from a user of one of the first aerosol provisiondevice 2 a or the second aerosol provision device 2 b. For example, theprocessor 64 may be configured to display information relating to theidentity of the first aerosol provision device 2 a on a first portion ofthe user interface and to display information relating to the identityof the second aerosol provision device 2 b on a second portion of theuser interface. The user is then able to select either the first aerosolprovision device 2 a or the second aerosol provision device 2 b, forexample by touching the portion of a touchscreen display correspondingto either the first portion of the user interface or the second portionof the user interface, by using a pointing device to position thepointer in the first portion of the user interface or the second portionof the user interface and making a selection, by pressing a button orother input element, by uttering an expression or making a gesture.

FIG. 14 schematically illustrates a user interface on a display 65 of aportable electronic device 6 corresponding to a change in an aspect ofthe user interface performed by the processor 64 of the portableelectronic device 6. In the illustrated example, a first graphicalrepresentation 67 a which indicates the first aerosol provision device 2a is provided on a first portion 65 a of the display 65 and a secondgraphical representation 67 b which indicates the second aerosolprovision device 2 b is provided on a second portion 65 b of the display65. The first graphical representation 67 a is cylindrically shaped tomatch the shape of the first aerosol provision device 2 a, and thesecond graphical representation 67 b is cylindrically shaped to matchthe shape of the second aerosol provision device 2 b. The firstgraphical representation 67 a is shaded to represent the color of thefirst aerosol provision device 2 a, whilst the second graphicalrepresentation 67 b is not shaded to represent that the second aerosolprovision device 2 b is white. The first portion 65 a of the display 65also contains first text 69 a next to the first graphical representation67 a, the first text 69 a containing the product ID and the UUID of thefirst aerosol provision device 2 a. The second portion 65 b of thedisplay 65 also contains second text 69 b next to the second graphicalrepresentation 67 b, the second text 69 b containing the product ID andthe UUID of the second aerosol provision device 2 b. The user is thenable to select the first aerosol provision device 2 a or the secondaerosol provision 2 b, for example by touching either the first portion65 a of the display 65 or the second portion 65 b of the display 65 witha finger, stylus or other suitable device, by pressing the button 68 orthrough another selection means as described above.

FIG. 15 illustrates a method for a portable electronic device 6. At step15-1, a data packet is received from an aerosol provision device via awireless communication network, wherein the data packet containsinformation relating to at least one physical characteristic of theaerosol provision device. At 15-2, the identity of the aerosol provisiondevice is determined based at least in part on the at least one physicalcharacteristic of the aerosol provision device. At 15-3, an aspect of auser interface is changed based on the determined identity of theaerosol provision device.

FIG. 16 illustrates a further method for a portable electronic device 6.At 16-1, a data packet is received from a first aerosol provision devicevia a wireless communication network, wherein the data packet containsinformation relating to at least one physical characteristic of theaerosol provision device. At 16-2, a data packet is received from asecond aerosol provision device via a wireless communication network,wherein the data packet contains information relating to at least onephysical characteristic of the second aerosol provision device. At 16-3,the identity of the first second aerosol provision device is determinedbased at least in part on the at least one physical characteristic ofthe first aerosol provision device. At 16-4, the identity of the secondaerosol provision device is determined based at least in part on the atleast one physical characteristic of the second aerosol provisiondevice. At 16-5, an aspect of a user interface is changed based on thedetermined identity of the first and second aerosol provision devicesuch as to enable a selection from a user of one of the first or secondaerosol provision devices. This provides a simple means of identifyingthe aerosol provision device when first communicating with it.

The order of the steps of the method illustrated in FIG. 16 is only toprovide an indication of the method and the steps may be performed in adifferent order. For example, determining the identity of the firstaerosol provision device at S16-3 may occur before a data packet isreceived from a second aerosol provision device at S16-2. The methodillustrated in FIG. 16 may also be extended to include more than twoaerosol provision devices, such as 3, 5, 10 or more aerosol provisiondevices.

By displaying the representations and/or associated text for the twodevices, as discussed above with respect to FIGS. 15 and 16 , anintuitive approach is provided by which a user may be provided withinformation that permits identification of one from multiple aerosolprovision devices prior to pairing with one of the devices. Such anapproach to identity disambiguation provides a system that can reduce anerror rate of pairing device selection and/or reduce the time taken toachieve a successful pairing. The user may be able to customize how theprocessor 64 of the portable electronic device 6 changes an aspect ofthe user interface or which aspect of the user interface the processor64 based on the determined identity of the aerosol provision device. Forexample, the user may specify that only the shape of the aerosolprovision device should be conveyed in the graphical representation, andthe remaining information, such as color, UUID and product ID, should bedisplayed as text near the graphical representation. This may beparticularly applicable if the user is color blind or unable todistinguish between the graphical representations which indicate theaerosol provision devices and the physical aerosol provision devices bycolor alone.

Therefore, from one perspective, there has been described a method and aportable electronic device. The method comprises receiving, via awireless communication interface capable of supporting pairedinteraction, a data packet from an aerosol provision device via awireless communication network. The data packet contains informationrelating to at least one physical characteristic of the aerosolprovision device. An identity of the aerosol provision device isdetermined based at least in part on the at least one physicalcharacteristic of the aerosol provision device and an aspect of a userinterface is changed based on the determined identity of the aerosolprovision device.

It should be appreciated that although the embodiments described abovehave been primarily described in relation to a wireless communicationinterface that uses Bluetooth LE, the principles of the presentdisclosure are not limited to using a particular wireless communicationinterface. For example, other implementations may be based on a Wi-Fidirect communication interface, or any other radio communicationinterface.

The various embodiments described herein are presented only to assist inunderstanding and teaching the claimed features. These embodiments areprovided as a representative sample of embodiments only, and are notexhaustive and/or exclusive. It is to be understood that advantages,embodiments, examples, functions, features, structures, and/or otheraspects described herein are not to be considered limitations on thedisclosure scope defined by the claims or limitations on equivalents tothe claims, and that other embodiments may be utilized and modificationsmay be made without departing from the scope and/or spirit of theclaims.

Further examples consistent with the present teachings are set out inthe following numbered clauses:

-   -   1. A method comprising:        -   receiving, via a wireless communication interface capable of            supporting paired interaction, a data packet from an aerosol            provision device via a wireless communication network,            wherein the data packet contains information relating to at            least one physical characteristic of the aerosol provision            device;        -   determining an identity of the aerosol provision device            based at least in part on the at least one physical            characteristic of the aerosol provision device; and        -   changing an aspect of a user interface based on the            determined identity of the aerosol provision device.

The method of clause 1, wherein the wireless communication interface isa Bluetooth low energy communication interface.

The method of clause 2, wherein the data packet is a Bluetooth lowenergy data packet and the information relating to at least one physicalcharacteristic of first and second aerosol provision device is containedwithin a packet data unit of the Bluetooth low energy data packet.

The method of any one of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the at least onephysical characteristic comprises the color of the aerosol provisiondevice.

The method of clause 4, wherein the color of the aerosol provisiondevice is conveyed as a hex color code.

The method of clause 4, wherein the color of the aerosol provisiondevice is conveyed as a predetermined code.

The method of clause 6, wherein determining the identity of the aerosolprovision device comprises using information stored in a database in amemory to translate the predetermined code received in the data packetinto a color of the aerosol provision device.

The method of any one of clauses 1 to 7, wherein the at least onephysical characteristic comprises one or more of the shape of theaerosol provision device, the size of the aerosol provision device, thetype of aerosol provision device.

The method of any one of clauses 1 to 8, wherein the data packetreceived from the aerosol provision device includes at least one of abatch number, a serial number and a product identification number of theaerosol provision device.

The method of any one of clauses 1 to 9, wherein determining theidentity of the aerosol provision device comprises comparing the atleast one physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device to adatabase of physical characteristics of aerosol provision devices storedin a memory.

The method of claim any one of clauses 1 to 10, wherein changing anaspect of the user interface comprises one or more of displaying agraphical representation of the aerosol provision device on the userinterface, playing a video, playing a sound, changing one or moredisplay settings of the user interface, and changing one or more colorsdisplayed on the user interface.

The method of any one of clauses 1 to 11, further comprising:

-   -   receiving, via the wireless communication interface, a data        packet from a second aerosol provision device via the wireless        communication network, wherein the data packet contains        information relating to at least one physical characteristic of        the second aerosol provision device;    -   determining the identity of the second aerosol provision device        based at least in part on the at least one physical        characteristic of the second aerosol provision device; and    -   changing an aspect of a user interface based on the determined        identity of the first and second aerosol provision device such        as to enable a selection from a user of one of the first or        second aerosol provision devices.

The method of clause 12, wherein changing an aspect of the userinterface comprises displaying a first graphical representation whichindicates the first aerosol provision device on a first portion of theuser interface and a second graphical representation which indicates thesecond aerosol provision device on a second portion of the userinterface.

A portable electronic device comprising:

-   -   at least one processor;    -   a wireless communication interface capable of supporting paired        interaction;    -   memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the at        least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform        the method of any one of clauses 1 to 13.

Various embodiments of the claimed scope may suitably comprise, consistof, or consist essentially of, appropriate combinations of the disclosedelements, components, features, parts, steps, means, etc., other thanthose specifically described herein. In addition, this disclosure mayinclude other concepts not presently claimed, but which may be claimedin future either in combination with or separately to the presentlyclaimed features.

1. A method comprising: receiving, at a mobile phone, via a wirelesscommunication interface capable of supporting paired interaction, a datapacket from an aerosol provision device via a wireless communicationnetwork, wherein the data packet contains information relating to atleast one physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device;determining an identity of the aerosol provision device based at leastin part on information from the data packet; and changing an aspect of auser interface based on the determined identity of the aerosol provisiondevice, wherein changing an aspect of the user interface comprises:displaying a graphical representation of the aerosol provision device onthe user interface, and changing one or more display settings of theuser interface.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wirelesscommunication interface is a Bluetooth low energy communicationinterface.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data packet is aBluetooth low energy data packet and the information relating to the atleast one physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device iscontained within a packet data unit of the Bluetooth low energy datapacket.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one physicalcharacteristic comprises a color of the aerosol provision device.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the color of the aerosol provision device isconveyed as a hex color code.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein thecolor of the aerosol provision device is conveyed as a predeterminedcode.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the identity of theaerosol provision device comprises using information stored in adatabase in a memory to translate the predetermined code received in thedata packet into the color of the aerosol provision device.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the at least one physical characteristiccomprises one or more of a shape of the aerosol provision device, a sizeof the aerosol provision device, or a type of the aerosol provisiondevice.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet received fromthe aerosol provision device includes at least one of a batch number, aserial number, or a product identification number of the aerosolprovision device.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining theidentity of the aerosol provision device comprises comparing the atleast one physical characteristic of the aerosol provision device to adatabase of physical characteristics of aerosol provision devices storedin a memory.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the aspect ofthe user interface further comprises one or more of playing a video,playing a sound, or changing one or more colors displayed on the userinterface.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the identityof the aerosol provision device based at least in part on theinformation from the data packet comprises determining the identity ofthe aerosol provision device based at least in part on the at least onephysical characteristic of the aerosol provision device.
 13. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at the mobile phone, via thewireless communication interface, a data packet from a second aerosolprovision device via the wireless communication network, wherein thedata packet contains information relating to at least one physicalcharacteristic of the second aerosol provision device; determining anidentity of the second aerosol provision device based at least in parton the information from the data packet from the second aerosolprovision device; and changing an aspect of the user interface based onthe determined identity of the second aerosol provision device, whereinchanging the aspect of the user interface comprises: displaying agraphical representation of the second aerosol provision device on theuser interface, and changing one or more display settings of the userinterface.
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, atthe mobile phone, via the wireless communication interface, a datapacket from a second aerosol provision device via the wirelesscommunication network, wherein the data packet contains informationrelating to at least one physical characteristic of the second aerosolprovision device; determining an identity of the second aerosolprovision device based at least in part on the information from the datapacket from the second aerosol provision device; and changing an aspectof the user interface based on the determined identity of the firstaerosol provision device and the second aerosol provision device, toenable a selection from a user of one of the first aerosol provisiondevice or the second aerosol provision device.
 15. The method of claim13, wherein determining the identity of the second aerosol provisiondevice based at least in part on the information from the data packetfrom the second aerosol provision device comprises determining theidentity of the second aerosol provision device based at least in parton the at least one physical characteristic of the second aerosolprovision device.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein changing theaspect of the user interface comprises displaying a first graphicalrepresentation which indicates the first aerosol provision device on afirst portion of the user interface and a second graphicalrepresentation which indicates the second aerosol provision device on asecond portion of the user interface.
 17. A mobile phone comprising: atleast one processor; a wireless communication interface capable ofsupporting paired interaction; memory comprising instructions which,when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least oneprocessor to perform the method of claim 1.